Kevin Downing Quoted Regarding Offshore Tax Evasion in Bloomberg BNA

07.09.12Kevin Downing is quoted extensively regarding the increased government crackdown on offshore tax evasion. “The IRS is going to continue looking at global banks and their cross-border operations,” Downing said. “That's not going away.” International banks will continue to be faced with the U.S. government's scrutiny of financial activities around the world, and those inquiries will go well beyond Switzerland, he said, with cases in Israel, India, and other countries. As such, additional litigation can be expected in the future.

As FATCA is put into place by the IRS, “there's a sense that things are moving forward,” Downing said. “Most of the developed countries realize it's something they have to use. The penalty regime is pretty devastating,” but the IRS and Treasury have “made a great effort to take comments from the public. That's gone quite well.”